In data processing systems, magnetic disk drives are often used as direct access storage devices. In such devices, read-write heads are used to write data on, or read data from, an adjacently rotating hard or flexible disk. To prevent damage to either the disk or the read-write head, it has been recognized for a long time that the surface of the disk should be very flat and free of any bumps or the like which might be contacted by the read-write head. Also, the read-write heads have been designed so that they will fly over the surface of the rotating disk at a very small, though theoretically constant, distance above the disk, the separation between the read-write head and the disk being maintained by a film of air. During its flight, the head undergoes continuous vibration, pitch and roll as the topography of the disk changes beneath the head. If the quality of the disk or the read-write head is poor, occasional rubbing or sharp contact may occur between the disk and the read-write head, leading to damage to the head or to the disk, and possibly the loss of valuable data.
Various attempts have been made to provide increased assurance that such undesirable contact between a read-write head and a recording disk does not occur. Rigid manufacturing and quality assurance specifications for both the recording disk and the read-write head have been instituted.
Disk inspection for various types of defects, including magnetic, optical and topographic (i.e., delamination, voids and inclusions, generally known as asperities), is of critical importance for the increasingly stringent production requirements facing a manufacturer today as smaller drives store more data. Many methods of inspection to find defects are in use, and many more have been proposed. These include optical techniques (fiber interferometry, bulk optic shear interferometry, microISA), magnetic readout (simply screening, HRF, etc.,) and mechanical testing (the so-called PZT glide test, described below). Each of these techniques may play a role in achieving the goal of the virtually defect free production of magnetic disks. However, with a tightening market and more exacting technical requirements as heads fly lower and faster, less expensive and more accurate inspection schemes become desirable.
The PZT glide test is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,802 to Yeack-Scranton et al. A read-write head is provided with a plurality of piezo-electric transducers which produce signals related to its movement as it flies over an adjacently rotating recording disk. By filtering these signals to determine their spectral components in low, medium and high ranges, hard contacts between the head and disk, disk wear or roughness, and head movement can be determined. While quite satisfactory in many aspects, this technique depends on contact between the read-write head and the disk, and as a result the heads wear out and costly replacement is required. In addition, resolution in the radial direction is limited by the geometry of the head to about 2 mm in the radial direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,698 to Wickramasinghe et al. is directed to a Scanning Thermal Profiler. A fine scanning tip is heated to a steady state temperature at a location remote from the structure to be investigated. Thereupon, the scanning tip is moved to a position proximate to, but spaced from the structure. At the proximate position, the temperature variation from the steady state temperature is detected. The scanning tip is scanned across the surface structure with the aforesaid temperature variation maintained constant. Piezo electric drivers move the scanning tip both transversely of, and parallel to, the surface structure. Feedback control assures the proper transverse positioning of the scanning tip and voltages thereby generated replicate the surface structure to be investigated. While this approach provides excellent depth resolution, it requires the use of an expensive scanning tip. It also has, in common with the approach illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,802 discussed above, the disadvantage that it cannot readily be utilized on an assembled disk drive.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for the detection of surface conditions on an otherwise smooth surface. The method and apparatus should provide for the subsequent categorization of the conditions into one of a plurality of possible types. Further, the method and apparatus should be useable in assembled disk drives, and provide the requisite function at a lower cost than the prior art systems.